Underground
by Allos
Summary: Naruto and Hinata are trapped together.  But all is not lost.  Keep your spirits up.  Try to guess what Naruto and Hinata's relationship is in this, I dare you!


They sat together in the cold dark room, staying close together for warmth. There was a dull glow from a lantern-like object sitting in the middle of the room, but its light had obviously faded some time ago. Opened crates were messily piled around them, which they had looked through earlier. The power had been knocked out, so there was no heat except their own, and the cold was creeping in. Every time they took a breath, steam appeared in front of their mouths. The door was securely bolted, some kind of strong metal with a chakra seal. It wasn't going to open from their side.

Naruto sat with his back up against the wall, and Hinata sat on Naruto. His arms wrapped around her, and her hands covered his. Hinata's head was leaning back on Naruto's shoulder. They both had their eyes closed, but neither was asleep.

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata whispered, although it was easily audible in the silence.

"What is it, Hinata?" Naruto opened his eyes to see Hinata looking up. She would be using her byakugun, but the recent events had drained her of almost all her chakra.

"I miss the stars." She said. Naruto looked up at the ceiling as well. It was a single slab of metal, spanning the entire top of the room.

"Yeah, me too." Naruto replied.

"How far underground do you think we are?" Hinata asked.

Naruto would have shrugged, but that would have disrupted both of their positions, so instead he answered, "I don't know. A hundred feet, a thousand feet maybe. It's impossible to tell while we're down here."

Hinata lowered her head again. "Yeah…"

Naruto noted the dispair in her voice. She gave the girl a little squeeze. "Hinata, we're going to be okay. Someone will find us soon. They know where we are, and they know we haven't reported back in a while. They'll send out a rescue party soon. Someone will search the complex and when they find this door, they'll open it from the outside and then we'll get to leave and go home." That's what Naruto was hoping anyway. If it came down to it, he might be able to break through the wall beside the door; he had more chakra left than Hinata. But down here, under the earth, such a violent move could make the entire structure collapse onto them. That move he was saving for last.

Hinata nodded, reassured by Naruto's words. The she closed her eyes and leaned her head back against his shoulder again, this time pressing her cheek slightly against his. Naruto didn't mind the extra warmth, nor the companionship. Both had been hard enough to find throughout his life. But as long as he had known Hinata, she had been willing to give him both.

"It's been a while since we've been in Konoha." Naruto said. "I wonder what'll have changed by the time we get back." Their mission had started a few weeks ago, they had been ordered to find this complex, stake it out, and then infiltrate when they deemed most appropriate. They had been sending communications back to the Hokage regularly. If they went in and weren't heard from in over twenty-four hours, a rescue team would be sent. It had been much longer than twenty-four hours.

"Sakura will have had her baby by now." Hinata replied.

"That's right! So then Fuzzy-brows' team will be back." Naruto added.

"Shikamaru will probably have held the first stage of the juonin exam." Hinata said.

"Ero-sennin should have finished a new book by now." Naruto sniggered.

They continued the game for a while, until they had only fleeting fancies left.

"I'll have missed eating a Ichiraku's about 27 times." Naruto realized, downtrodden. Hinata couldn't help but smile.

"I missed my favorite play when it came to the village." She replied.

"I miss always beating Sasuke at everything we do." Naruto said, sighing.

"I miss watching you try to beat Sasuke at everything you do." Hinata replied.

Naruto looked like he was going to yell something for a moment, but then his features calmed. "Yeah, me too."

They sat silently for a while, and in that timeframe, Naruto realized, not for the first time, that Hinata was amazing. She always seemed so shy and weak, and Naruto couldn't remember a time when she hadn't been a wall flower. And yet, he had come to depend on her. He had come to steady himself on her. Not once had she buckled under his weight. And the more he depended on her, the stronger she got.

"I hope we'll see them all again." Hinata said. She leaned forward, off of Naruto's body, away from the comfort of his arms.

"What do you mean? Of course we'll see them again!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Naruto-kun… We fell a long way down that pit, and no one is going to want to climb down it. There may not be another way down here. They might not think that the pit goes to more of the complex. They might think that we left already."

Naruto leaned up and pulled his arms around her again, this time trapping her own arms with his. "Hinata! Don't talk like that. Of course they'll find us. This door will be a huge glowing beacon to anyone who can sense chakra. They'll find us."

Hinata shifted around to look Naruto in the eye. He refused to let go of her, though. She looked like she was ready to cry. Just a few minutes ago she had seemed perfectly happy.

"I know that they'll probably find us, but I can't help thinking 'what if they don't, what if they don't.' I'm not scared of dying. I'm scared of dying before I get anyone to care. I'm scared that no one will be at my funeral, or if they are, it's out of obligation. And I'm scared that there might be people who are glad I'm gone. And I'm scared… I'm so scared."

Naruto stared at Hinata, who was covering her face with her hands. He wasn't used to seeing her like this, and he had never known that she had worried about those kinds of things.

He pulled her close onto his lap. She tried to move away, but gave up quickly. He held her tightly against his chest, and put his chin on the top of her head.

"There's no way on Earth that any of those things could happen. If you died, and you _won't_ die here, there would be loads of people at your funeral. Everyone who knew you would miss you and there would be _no one_ that would be glad. No one." Naruto wasn't stretching the truth by any means. Hinata touched the lives of everyone she knew, and she was the kind of person you couldn't not like.

"B-But…" Hinata stammered.

"Calm down, Hinata." Naruto said. "You haven't stuttered in ages. Now, there are no 'buts'. I've just told you the truth, and that's how it would happen."

Hinata looked up at him. "Naruto-kun…"

Naruto smiled his best smile. "I promise." Then he leaned in and kissed her on the forehead. Hinata immediately turned red. Naruto couldn't help but chuckle. Even after all this time, all that they'd been through together, he could still make her blush so easily.

Naruto leaned back up against the wall, and Hinata leaned back against him. Naruto wrapped his arms around her again. Hinata put her hands on his.

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah, Hinata?" Naruto asked back.

"I wish I could see the stars." Hinata said.

"Yeah," Naruto replied. "Me too."


End file.
